Bullying: Analysis of Risk Factors, Protective Factors and Their Impact on Children's Mental Health in the Future

Abstract

Cases of bullying in children have increased every year. It has different negative impacts and becomes very worrying because it can impact children's mental health. Bullying often occurs in various environments, and cases of bullying cause trauma to children. Behavior Bullying in children occurs due to several risk factors, individual factors, family, community, and environmental factors. This study aims to determine the risk factors, protective factors, and impact of bullying on children's mental health. This study uses a qualitative approach with a phenomenological approach. Determination of the subject of this study using a purposive sampling technique. The research subjects in this study were elementary school students in grades III, IV, V, and VI. Data collection techniques used are participatory observation, in-depth interviews, and documentation. The data analysis technique used by the researcher is data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion drawing. The results showed that the risk factors for bullying behavior in children include a) Characteristics of children: Closeness and resentment, past experiences of violence, lack of self-confidence, feeling ashamed and not having the ability and feeling unhappy, b) Family function: Lack of family knowledge about bullying, poor interaction, and communication with children, experiences of parental violence, difficulties in building emotional bonds between parents and children. c) Environmental support: teacher's perception of bullying, the influence of social media, and d) Peer factor: lack of peer support and the existence of certain groups. Protective Factors Bullying Behavior in children includes: internal factors and external factors. There are five categories of internal protective factors to prevent bullying behavior: Children's abilities and interests, self-confidence, self-acceptance, self-development, and pleasure or happiness. There are seven external protective factors to prevent bullying: Family function, emotional closeness, good role models, teachers are friends, inculcation of religious values, good communication between parents, children, and schools and extracurricular programs. The impact of bullying on children's mental health include: a) Physical impact: Injury, negative feelings towards physical and unattractive; b) Psychological impact: Not being confident, feeling afraid, feeling helpless, blaming yourself, not daring to fight, and c) Social impact: Barriers to establishing social relationships, negative view of self.